Published: Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 10:07 p.m.

Last Modified: Saturday, July 13, 2013 at 10:07 p.m.

SARASOTA - In San Antonio, he is the former councilman who made a $125 million homeless service campus happen.

Facts

ROBERT MARBUT

Age: 53

Location: San Antonio, Texas

Education: Doctorate from the University of Texas-Austin; studied international relations, political behavior and American political institutions and processes; master's degree in government, University of Texas-Austin; master's degree in criminal justice, Claremont Graduate School.

Current job: Runs Marbut Consulting, and is a public policy professor at Northwest Vista College

Past work: President and chief executive of Haven for Hope;, San Antonio councilman; aide to San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros; White House Fellow

Career highlights: Visited more than 500 homeless service operations in 20 states; has worked with dozens of communities.

UPDATE

What's new? Robert Marbut, a national consultant on homelessness, will visit Sarasota on Wednesday and Thursday. He will tour agencies and homeless hangouts, then speak with local officials and service providers. On Thursday evening, he will speak at a community forum.

The story so far: The Sarasota area has struggled with how to reduce the large number of homeless on the streets. The city banned panhandling on street corners after an influx of people asking for money, and the county has formed a new committee to tackle the issue.

What's next? After Marbut's visit this week, the community must decide whether to hire him. If they do, he will analyze how the area combats homelessness and offer a plan to improve the system.

Around Pinellas County, he's the guy who helped create a 470-bed shelter and move people off the street.

To the administration of the elder President Bush, he's the fellow who vetted the homeless service nonprofits before George and Barbara visited.

And in high school, he was the church-group kid who handed out T-shirts and clean socks under a bridge.

But what Robert Marbut will be known for in Sarasota hinges on his visit this week.

Over the past year, as the community clamored for solutions to area homelessness, the consultant's name kept coming up.

For a fee, Marbut, 53, has helped cities across the nation get people off the streets using a tough-love approach to the problem that cuts down enabling and streamlines services.

He is considered an expert on urban homelessness. Some hate him, others love him, but he's going to say what he thinks when he visits. He will tour the city's nonprofits, visit places where homeless people congregate, meet with local leaders and answer residents' questions at a forum.

Then, five months after he first submitted proposals to help Sarasota address its dislocated population, he will wait to see if the community takes him up on his ideas.

It's one of the biggest questions in Sarasota County today: Why does this generous and wealthy community, with its abundance of social service programs, still have more than 1,200 homeless people on any given night?

The answer, local advocates say, is a lack of coordination — a difficulty figuring out how to best use funding and work together.

Community members hope Marbut, who has visited more than 500 homeless service centers, can spot holes in the system and map out a fix.

It took a while for local leaders to bring Marbut here because first, they had to figure out if the community was even interested in hearing his ideas, Assistant County Administrator Lee Ann Lowery said.

“It's important we have buy-in from a number of sectors of the community. That takes time,” Lowery said.

While the city and county administrations are sold on Marbut, Lowery said they need to make sure citizens trust his philosophy. She, city leaders, community foundation members and nonprofits will attend Marbut's presentations. Then they will gauge, from the questions and comments that emerge, whether people think he is worth hiring.

“Otherwise we're going to have a very fragmented, segmented approach to the issue, and we won't be nearly as effective in addressing it,” she said.

If they do decide to hire him, Lowery said, they'll have to determine how to cover his fee.

In proposals to the city and county, Marbut listed a $16,536 fee for three months, then offered one month of pro bono work.

However, many of the cities he works with keep him on longer.

Marbut also asked to have his travel expenses covered, and noted that he would be visiting up to three times a month. In between those visits, while at home in San Antonio — he teaches public policy there at Northwest Vista College — Marbut said he would review and analyze data.

Some of Marbut's critics say he pushes the homeless from one city to another. They cite an ongoing program in St. Petersburg, where the city pays the bus fare for homeless people to leave town.

Several hundred people have been offered bus tickets to other cities in Florida and across the nation, local American Civil Liberties Union legal chairman Michael Barfield said. He said he has spreadsheets of bus tickets that the city of St. Petersburg purchased for the homeless.

“For those that weren't able to succeed in their program early on, they were offered bus tickets,” Barfield said. “Is that appropriate? It may be legally correct, but is it morally correct?”

Barfield said Marbut was at the “30,000-foot level” and suggested the approach, while the cities and agencies executed and paid for it.

That wasn't the case, said Rhonda Abbott, St. Petersburg's former manager of veterans, social and homeless services. The program Barfield is referring to was in place long before Marbut was hired, she said.

“That's nothing new,” Abbott said. “Most communities do that.”

Abbott said agencies that administer the “reunification” program always call the relative whom the homeless person is trying to get to before giving them a ticket.

Barfield said that has been disputed.

Sarasota Mayor Shannon Snyder also has repeatedly called Marbut's hiring the wrong move, one that will push the homeless to another community. When Pinellas County saw a drop in homelessness, Sarasota County watched its population increase, he said.

“It's going to have a nice spin on it, but all we're going to do is run people out of town,” Snyder said.

The city doesn't have money to get involved in social services, Snyder added.

To prevent shuffling people to another place, Marbut said there needs to be a regional approach to services — as in Pinellas.

After Marbut contracted with St. Petersburg in October 2010, the number of homeless people there decreased. But Clearwater saw an influx, Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne said.

“We kind of felt like that success was partially occurring at our expense,” he said.

So he hired the expert, as did Pinellas Park.

Marbut helped Clearwater strengthen ordinances that make it difficult to live on the streets and changed the city's philosophy on addressing homelessness, Horne said.

“Don't enable homeless on the street. Don't give in to the panhandling,” he said. “Channel people to the full range of services.”

Marbut stressed that ordinances are merely a tool, not “the magic elixir.”

“If you just say, ‘I'm going to criminalize homelessness, and by the way I'm not going to help you,' then you do push people down the street,” Marbut said.

In St. Petersburg, there were “outspoken, controversial activists” who did not like Marbut's approach, Abbott said. She worked closely with Marbut for the year he contracted there.

For instance, he had face-offs with religious organizations that were used to bringing services to the streets — a practice Marbut participated in when he was young, but now admonishes. Groups that had long fed and clothed the needy opposed what they viewed as cold-hearted tactics.

The consultant also is blunt about streamlining agencies, and about defunding those that are ineffective or duplicative. He wants people to knock on one door, not 15, to get help, Abbott said.

“And he will push that and he will cause controversy,” Abbott said. “He told me, ‘Rhonda, if you're not under fire, you're not doing your job.' ”

Abbott and Horne said that after their cities implemented Marbut's advice the number of homeless dropped.

“I just recommend that you hire him,” Abbott said. “You can only do things the same way for so long.”

While Marbut was working with Pinellas, he helped the Sheriff's Office as it created Pinellas Safe Harbor shelter.

The cavernous converted bus garage next to the jail reopened as a shelter in January 2011. It is meant to be an alternative for homeless people who commit crimes such as trespassing, panhandling, having an open container or urinating in public.

“They may have cuffs on but can still be diverted here,” said Lt. Sean McGillen, who oversees the shelter.

He said Marbut helped the shelter market its plan and understand the thinking and needs of the homeless, down to the little things — like storage space.

The shelter has 10 full-time case managers and many other specialized part-timers who connect people with resources that help them get off the streets.

Unlike the Salvation Army — Sarasota County's major shelter — Safe Harbor accepts people who are intoxicated. But they must sleep on mats in an outdoor cement enclosure. If they meet with caseworkers and follow the rules, there are rewards — they get to move into the air-conditioned shelter and, potentially, to a coveted bunk bed.

Nothing like it exists in Sarasota.

“The elephant in the room is how do we deal with emergency housing and transitional housing, and how do you deal with people who won't go to the Salvation Army and take advantage of those programs,” Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin said.

Sarasota city and county officials have toured Safe Harbor. Lowery said she would not be surprised if the community decides to add a “shelter of last resort.”

If the community can't find a place for the shelter, Barwin said he hopes Marbut will help them develop a “creative scattered housing approach,” with widespread small-scale shelter options.

The city and county leadership have bickered about who does what for the homeless, and neither administration seems to want the shelter in its backyard.

Marbut said he is used to that. He was a councilman and aide to the mayor in San Antonio, and knows the world of local government. Plus, he said that everywhere he consults the city and county initially are either disconnected or there are “outright wars.”

People often think certain issues surrounding homelessness are unique to their city and usually, Marbut said. They are not.

But he has noticed a couple things that set Sarasota apart.

One is the interest of two deep-pocketed, influential foundations — Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County — which are financing his visit this week.

Over the past year, the foundations have taken up the cause of helping the homeless. That will spur change, Marbut said.

“The places that move the quickest to get to the solution are driven by the funding sources,” he said.

The other Sarasota quirk started showing up in Marbut's inbox long ago. People here have bombarded him with suggestions and questions, he said.

“Do you think this will work?” they ask. Marbut replies, “That tactic sounds good, but until you do your research you won't know if it's needed.”

Marbut has been to Sarasota about 20 times in the past two years, he estimated, but often he just drove down for dinner with friends. He has only been to the Sarasota and Bradenton area three times to talk specifically about homelessness.

During his most recent visit, he asked people what was missing. Employees at the emergency room, jail, police, agencies and faith-based community all gave different answers, he said.

If he is hired in Sarasota, Marbut plans to do a complete analysis of what services are offered. He will review data and go incognito — live as the city's homeless do for a few days, experience the “flow” of services and how agencies operate when a director is not showing them off.

When Abbott worked with Marbut in St. Petersburg, she said he “beat the streets” at all hours and loved it.

“That was probably the best part of his job,” she said. “I don't know when he slept.”

Marbut warned that he can't eliminate homelessness. And the community has to continue maintenance work — checking under bridges, at parks and bus stations and keeping people engaged in programs.

But if Sarasota just gets 50 percent of the homeless off the streets forever, that would help the city financially, he said.

“I'm not na´ve,” Marbut said. “Your problem will forever be that you have palm trees and you have golf courses and you have beaches.”

<p><em>SARASOTA</em> - In San Antonio, he is the former councilman who made a $125 million homeless service campus happen.</p><p>Around Pinellas County, he's the guy who helped create a 470-bed shelter and move people off the street.</p><p>To the administration of the elder President Bush, he's the fellow who vetted the homeless service nonprofits before George and Barbara visited. </p><p>And in high school, he was the church-group kid who handed out T-shirts and clean socks under a bridge.</p><p>But what Robert Marbut will be known for in Sarasota hinges on his visit this week.</p><p>Over the past year, as the community clamored for solutions to area homelessness, the consultant's name kept coming up.</p><p>For a fee, Marbut, 53, has helped cities across the nation get people off the streets using a tough-love approach to the problem that cuts down enabling and streamlines services. </p><p>He is considered an expert on urban homelessness. Some hate him, others love him, but he's going to say what he thinks when he visits. He will tour the city's nonprofits, visit places where homeless people congregate, meet with local leaders and answer residents' questions at a forum. </p><p>Then, five months after he first submitted proposals to help Sarasota address its dislocated population, he will wait to see if the community takes him up on his ideas.</p><p>It's one of the biggest questions in Sarasota County today: Why does this generous and wealthy community, with its abundance of social service programs, still have more than 1,200 homeless people on any given night?</p><p>The answer, local advocates say, is a lack of coordination — a difficulty figuring out how to best use funding and work together.</p><p>Community members hope Marbut, who has visited more than 500 homeless service centers, can spot holes in the system and map out a fix.</p><p>It took a while for local leaders to bring Marbut here because first, they had to figure out if the community was even interested in hearing his ideas, Assistant County Administrator Lee Ann Lowery said.</p><p>“It's important we have buy-in from a number of sectors of the community. That takes time,” Lowery said.</p><p>While the city and county administrations are sold on Marbut, Lowery said they need to make sure citizens trust his philosophy. She, city leaders, community foundation members and nonprofits will attend Marbut's presentations. Then they will gauge, from the questions and comments that emerge, whether people think he is worth hiring.</p><p>“Otherwise we're going to have a very fragmented, segmented approach to the issue, and we won't be nearly as effective in addressing it,” she said. </p><p>If they do decide to hire him, Lowery said, they'll have to determine how to cover his fee.</p><p>In proposals to the city and county, Marbut listed a $16,536 fee for three months, then offered one month of pro bono work.</p><p>However, many of the cities he works with keep him on longer.</p><p>Marbut also asked to have his travel expenses covered, and noted that he would be visiting up to three times a month. In between those visits, while at home in San Antonio — he teaches public policy there at Northwest Vista College — Marbut said he would review and analyze data.</p><p>Some of Marbut's critics say he pushes the homeless from one city to another. They cite an ongoing program in St. Petersburg, where the city pays the bus fare for homeless people to leave town.</p><p>Several hundred people have been offered bus tickets to other cities in Florida and across the nation, local American Civil Liberties Union legal chairman Michael Barfield said. He said he has spreadsheets of bus tickets that the city of St. Petersburg purchased for the homeless.</p><p>“For those that weren't able to succeed in their program early on, they were offered bus tickets,” Barfield said. “Is that appropriate? It may be legally correct, but is it morally correct?”</p><p>Barfield said Marbut was at the “30,000-foot level” and suggested the approach, while the cities and agencies executed and paid for it. </p><p>That wasn't the case, said Rhonda Abbott, St. Petersburg's former manager of veterans, social and homeless services. The program Barfield is referring to was in place long before Marbut was hired, she said. </p><p>“That's nothing new,” Abbott said. “Most communities do that.” </p><p>Abbott said agencies that administer the “reunification” program always call the relative whom the homeless person is trying to get to before giving them a ticket. </p><p>Barfield said that has been disputed. </p><p>Sarasota Mayor Shannon Snyder also has repeatedly called Marbut's hiring the wrong move, one that will push the homeless to another community. When Pinellas County saw a drop in homelessness, Sarasota County watched its population increase, he said.</p><p>“It's going to have a nice spin on it, but all we're going to do is run people out of town,” Snyder said.</p><p>The city doesn't have money to get involved in social services, Snyder added.</p><p>To prevent shuffling people to another place, Marbut said there needs to be a regional approach to services — as in Pinellas. </p><p>After Marbut contracted with St. Petersburg in October 2010, the number of homeless people there decreased. But Clearwater saw an influx, Clearwater City Manager Bill Horne said. </p><p>“We kind of felt like that success was partially occurring at our expense,” he said. </p><p>So he hired the expert, as did Pinellas Park.</p><p>Marbut helped Clearwater strengthen ordinances that make it difficult to live on the streets and changed the city's philosophy on addressing homelessness, Horne said.</p><p>“Don't enable homeless on the street. Don't give in to the panhandling,” he said. “Channel people to the full range of services.” </p><p>Marbut stressed that ordinances are merely a tool, not “the magic elixir.”</p><p>“If you just say, 'I'm going to criminalize homelessness, and by the way I'm not going to help you,' then you do push people down the street,” Marbut said. </p><p>In St. Petersburg, there were “outspoken, controversial activists” who did not like Marbut's approach, Abbott said. She worked closely with Marbut for the year he contracted there.</p><p>For instance, he had face-offs with religious organizations that were used to bringing services to the streets — a practice Marbut participated in when he was young, but now admonishes. Groups that had long fed and clothed the needy opposed what they viewed as cold-hearted tactics.</p><p>The consultant also is blunt about streamlining agencies, and about defunding those that are ineffective or duplicative. He wants people to knock on one door, not 15, to get help, Abbott said. </p><p>“And he will push that and he will cause controversy,” Abbott said. “He told me, 'Rhonda, if you're not under fire, you're not doing your job.' ”</p><p>Abbott and Horne said that after their cities implemented Marbut's advice the number of homeless dropped. </p><p>“I just recommend that you hire him,” Abbott said. “You can only do things the same way for so long.”</p><p>While Marbut was working with Pinellas, he helped the Sheriff's Office as it created Pinellas Safe Harbor shelter.</p><p>The cavernous converted bus garage next to the jail reopened as a shelter in January 2011. It is meant to be an alternative for homeless people who commit crimes such as trespassing, panhandling, having an open container or urinating in public. </p><p>“They may have cuffs on but can still be diverted here,” said Lt. Sean McGillen, who oversees the shelter. </p><p>He said Marbut helped the shelter market its plan and understand the thinking and needs of the homeless, down to the little things — like storage space.</p><p>The shelter has 10 full-time case managers and many other specialized part-timers who connect people with resources that help them get off the streets.</p><p>Unlike the Salvation Army — Sarasota County's major shelter — Safe Harbor accepts people who are intoxicated. But they must sleep on mats in an outdoor cement enclosure. If they meet with caseworkers and follow the rules, there are rewards — they get to move into the air-conditioned shelter and, potentially, to a coveted bunk bed. </p><p>Nothing like it exists in Sarasota.</p><p>“The elephant in the room is how do we deal with emergency housing and transitional housing, and how do you deal with people who won't go to the Salvation Army and take advantage of those programs,” Sarasota City Manager Tom Barwin said.</p><p>Sarasota city and county officials have toured Safe Harbor. Lowery said she would not be surprised if the community decides to add a “shelter of last resort.”</p><p>If the community can't find a place for the shelter, Barwin said he hopes Marbut will help them develop a “creative scattered housing approach,” with widespread small-scale shelter options. </p><p>The city and county leadership have bickered about who does what for the homeless, and neither administration seems to want the shelter in its backyard. </p><p>Marbut said he is used to that. He was a councilman and aide to the mayor in San Antonio, and knows the world of local government. Plus, he said that everywhere he consults the city and county initially are either disconnected or there are “outright wars.” </p><p>People often think certain issues surrounding homelessness are unique to their city and usually, Marbut said. They are not. </p><p>But he has noticed a couple things that set Sarasota apart.</p><p>One is the interest of two deep-pocketed, influential foundations — Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County — which are financing his visit this week.</p><p>Over the past year, the foundations have taken up the cause of helping the homeless. That will spur change, Marbut said. </p><p>“The places that move the quickest to get to the solution are driven by the funding sources,” he said. </p><p>The other Sarasota quirk started showing up in Marbut's inbox long ago. People here have bombarded him with suggestions and questions, he said.</p><p>“Do you think this will work?” they ask. Marbut replies, “That tactic sounds good, but until you do your research you won't know if it's needed.”</p><p>Marbut has been to Sarasota about 20 times in the past two years, he estimated, but often he just drove down for dinner with friends. He has only been to the Sarasota and Bradenton area three times to talk specifically about homelessness. </p><p>During his most recent visit, he asked people what was missing. Employees at the emergency room, jail, police, agencies and faith-based community all gave different answers, he said. </p><p>If he is hired in Sarasota, Marbut plans to do a complete analysis of what services are offered. He will review data and go incognito — live as the city's homeless do for a few days, experience the “flow” of services and how agencies operate when a director is not showing them off. </p><p>When Abbott worked with Marbut in St. Petersburg, she said he “beat the streets” at all hours and loved it.</p><p>“That was probably the best part of his job,” she said. “I don't know when he slept.”</p><p>Marbut warned that he can't eliminate homelessness. And the community has to continue maintenance work — checking under bridges, at parks and bus stations and keeping people engaged in programs. </p><p>But if Sarasota just gets 50 percent of the homeless off the streets forever, that would help the city financially, he said.</p><p>“I'm not na´ve,” Marbut said. “Your problem will forever be that you have palm trees and you have golf courses and you have beaches.”</p>